Botanical classification/cultivar designation: Impatiens hawkeri cultivar KLEI01027.
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of New Guinea Impatiens plant, botanically known as Impatiens hawkeri, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name KLEI01027.
The new Impatiens is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Stuttgart, Germany. The objective of the breeding program is to develop new freely branching Impatiens cultivars with numerous large flowers and interesting flower and foliage colors.
The new Impatiens originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor during the fall of 1998 of a proprietary Impatiens hawkeri selection identified as code number A 070 not patented, as the female, or seed parent, with a proprietary Impatiens hawkeri selection identified as code number O 418, not patented, as the male, or pollen parent. The cultivar KLEI01027 was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in controlled environment in Stuttgart, Germany, in May, 1999.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings taken in a controlled environment in Stuttgart, Germany, since 1999, has shown that the unique features of this new Impatiens are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98KLEI01027xe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98KLEI01027xe2x80x99 as a new Impatiens cultivar and distinguish it from other known Impatiens cultivars:
1. Compact, mounded and outwardly spreading plant habit.
2. Freely branching growth habit.
3. Dark green-colored leaves.
4. Freely flowering habit with flowers positioned above or beyond the foliage.
5. Pink-colored flowers with red purple-colored centers.
Plants of the new Impatiens differ primarily from plants of the parent selections in flower color as plants of the female and male parent selections have orange and violet-colored flowers, respectively.
Plants of the new Impatiens can be compared to plants of the cultivar Oslo, disclosed in U.S. Plant patent application Ser. No. 09/876,938. In side-by-side comparisons conducted in Stuttgart, Germany, plants of the new Impatiens differed from plants of the cultivar Oslo in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Impatiens are not as freely flowering as plants of the cultivar Oslo.
2. Plants of the new Impatiens flowered later than plants of the cultivar Oslo.
3. Flowers of plants of the new Impatiens had lighter colored flowers with more distinct red purple-colored centers than plants of the cultivar Oslo.